


You've Got That Something

by Spacecadet72



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9149971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecadet72/pseuds/Spacecadet72
Summary: While at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony, Darcy platonically holds Steve's hand so that she doesn't get lost in the crowd. Then he starts holding her hand anytime they go anywhere, and Darcy isn't sure her heart can handle it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nicaha23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicaha23/gifts).



> This was written for nicaha23 for the 2016 Steve/Darcy Christmas Fic Exchange. I'm sorry you had to wait until the last day for this! I hope you like it!
> 
> The prompt was: “You’re afraid that you’ll lose me in big crowds so you always hold my hand but now you just hold my hand when there’s only, like, five people around and I’m getting very suspicious” - maybe at the Rockefeller tree lighting
> 
> Title comes from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles.
> 
> This story is set before Civil War.

It had started at the tree lighting at the Rockefeller Center.

Darcy had never been, and Steve hadn’t been since before the war, and so they decided to go. The crowd surrounding the tree was enormous, and Darcy felt like she was touching at least four other people at all times. They moved through the crowd, trying to find a better spot to see the tree, and Darcy felt like she would get left behind in the sea of people.

Before she could overthink it, she reached out and grabbed Steve’s hand. Steve looked back at her and then down at their joined hands.

“Darcy?” he asked, looking confused, but not freaked out, which she took as a good sign.

“I feel like I’m going to get lost, so I’m invoking the buddy system hand hold,” Darcy said moving up closer to him.

Steve smiled, and gave her hand a squeeze. “Good plan,” he said before they were moving again.

The tree was beautiful, and despite how cold it was outside and the sheer number of other people there, Darcy was glad they had gone. She also couldn’t help but notice how nice and warm Steve’s hand felt in hers. Even after they found their spot and stayed there, she didn’t release his hand. She leaned in closer to him, telling herself it was because he was so warm and it was freezing out, but she couldn’t quite convince herself that was the whole truth. He didn’t say anything about it, and they held hands all the way to her apartment.

It was like she could still feel his hand in hers even after he left. She held onto the feeling, but knew it wouldn’t happen again. She had what she had coined a “pre-crush” on Steve. She didn’t have feelings for him, but she knew it wouldn’t take much to tip her over into full on crush mode. She needed to stop herself from doing that. She and Steve were good friends, and she didn’t want to screw that up.

That decided, she gave one last look at the hand Steve had been holding all night and went to bed.

* * *

 

Darcy was helping Steve with his Christmas present shopping a few days later when it happened again. The store they were in was certainly busy, but with almost three weeks until Christmas, it didn’t have the last-minute-panic crowds yet.

There were reminders of Christmas everywhere, as there had been since the minute Halloween ended, and Darcy was a little frustrated with the Christmas music selection in this store--Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You had played at least three times in the 45 minutes they had been there--but Darcy was happy to be helping Steve. With the exception of the tree lighting a few days ago, it had been awhile since she’d seen him. She had been busy helping Jane science and he had been on a few back to back classified missions. It was nice to be doing something so normal with a friend.

She followed Steve into a particularly crowded section of the store--housewares--and without a word, he reached down and took her hand in his. When he saw her questioning look, he shrugged and offered only “Buddy system,” with a small smile.

It was a little weird, but she went with it, and she had to admit that standing there, holding Steve’s hand and looking at frying pans makes her heart doing a weird little dance in her chest. Her pre-crush might be heading a little closer to actual crush, but she forced that feeling down and gave her opinion on whether teflon was the way to go or not.

It was just friends holding hands. No big deal.

* * *

 

It happened again and again over the next several weeks as they hung out around the city. And granted, it _is_ New York, and so it’s generally more crowded than lots of places, but they hadn’t been in a crowd anywhere near as big as the tree lighting since then.

Darcy wanted to say something, ask him what all this is about, but she liked the way their hands fit together. She imagined they’re more than just friends, as much as she tried to ignore those thoughts, and she couldn’t quite make herself say something about it.

She was sure he’d stop eventually.

* * *

 

Finally, after a few more weeks, Darcy couldn’t take it anymore without saying something. They were at a museum Steve wanted to check out, and as soon as they paid admission, Steve grabbed her hand, once again citing the buddy system.

“Steve, there are literally five other people here. I’m not sure the buddy system needs to be invoked at this point,” Darcy said, sounding more exasperated than she had planned. It was just that she wasn’t sure she could handle holding his hand like that without there actually being something more to their friendship.

Steve sheepishly ducked his head and let go of her hand. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Darcy said, already missing the solid warmth of his hand in hers. She was starting to wish that she hadn’t said anything. She could handle an unrequited crush if it meant she got to be with him like this. Even if it was just hand holding.

“After that first time, I wanted to hold your hand again, but didn’t want to freak you out, so I thought I’d invoke the buddy system,” Steve said, looking worried at her reaction, but there was hope there too.

A young couple, hands intertwined, walked past them, drawing Darcy’s attention and a thought suddenly struck her.

“Wait a second, are we dating?” Darcy asked as she thought back over the past several weeks. She and Steve had been good friends for a long time, and it wasn’t weird for them to go out and do things, either by themselves or with other members of the Avengers. There had been a lot of just them outings lately though, and Steve had held her hand during every single one of them. To any outside observer, it would have looked like a happy young couple out on a date.

Steve stared at her, a hopeful smile on his lips. “Do you want to be?”

Darcy paused, trying to take this all in. She had been ignoring the fact that her “pre-crush” had been anything but pre for the past several weeks, and now that she didn’t have to hide those feelings, it was a lot to handle.

She looked back up at Steve’s face and the hope and love there, and her mind was made up.

She nodded. “I’d really like that,” she said before pushing up on her toes to press her lips to his.

Steve wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in closer.

Darcy had never been more grateful for the buddy system than she was in that moment.


End file.
